The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 46

2-D THE GALVESTON DAILY NEWS SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 2, 1989 Study Continued Irom 1-D Railroad Administration. Most toxic rail accidents were concentrated in heavily populated states bordering the Great Lakes and the Gulf Coast states with heavy industry or oil and gas production, Citizen Action said. "Toxic railroad accidents are a growing public safety problem across the country," said Robert Creamer, spokesman for Citizen Action and executive director of the Illinois Public Action Council, which conducted the study. Citizen Action said 4 billion tons of hazardous materials are shipped annually, involving 250,000 shipments and 3,000 carloads a day. Yet while 53 percent of rail accidents involving hazardous materials stemmed from mechanical failures, the Federal Railroad Administration does not effectively enforce rail safety standards, the study charged.

"The greatest contributor to toxic rail accidents are unsafe track and roadbeds, yet even when FRA inspectors find a defect, they do not assess a penalty they only notify the railroad of its non-com-Convention watch pliance," Creamer said. But a spokeswoman for the FRA said that was "absolutely" not true and that the agency alerts carriers to make repairs in rail track that amount to a police officer fining a motorist for doing 56 in a 55-mph zone. She said the FRA in 1987 assessed hazardous materials penalities totaling $646,750, compared with $305,900 in penalities by the Federal Aviation Administration and $292,300 for highway violations. Also, traffic is up and "there are more hazardous materials traveling on the rails," said the spokeswoman. Illinois and Texas have the largest rail-carrying areas, she said.

In the case of Illinois, of the 49 accidents involving trains carrying hazardous materials, hazardous materials were released in only five cases. The Citizen Action study said FRA's reliance on industry self- regulation of track defects, operating rules and hazardous materials has "repeatedly failed to prevent toxic rail accidents." At the same time, FRA "supports railroad initiatives to further weaken industry liability for toxic rail accidents." Justin Industries profits from boots Associated Press I jr Associated Press FORT WORTH John Justin is a survivor. In his 72 years and more than a half-century in business, Justin has prevailed through a depression, a world war, leather shortages and even a term as mayor of Port Worth. But Justin, chairman of Justin Industries, may have earned his greatest triumph in this decade; he and his boot company met the trial by fire known as "Urban Cowboy." In 1980, lines formed outside theaters to see the movie depicting, more or less, the working side of the oil boom. The post-disco John Travolta, reconstituted as a refinery worker, reigned as the national hulk.

Millions of American men began their day by singing Mickey Gilley's version of "Stand By Me," in the shower, and Gilley's nightclub in Pasadena became a mecca. Above all, western clothing became the mandatory "in" thing to wear in places where cowboy boots had seldom been seen the Boston Common, mid-Manhattan, Georgetown, Sunset Strip and even Below is a list of conventions and meetings to be held in Galveston this week: National Armed Robbery and Homicide Conference April 3-7 Hotel Galvez Expected to attend 175 Predicted economic impact $94,500 Amoco Chemicals April 2-7 San Luis Expected to attend 50 Predicted economic impact $33,750 International Symposium of Gastrointestinal Endocrinology April 2-5 San Luis Expected to attend 150 Predicted economic impact $60,750 UTMB Family Practice Review April 8-16 San Luis Expected to attend 250 Predicted economic impact $270,000 Isle-A-Manders April 7-8 Moody Center Expected to attend 400 Predicted economic impact $54,000 Union Carbide April 3-7 San Luis Expected to attend 50 Predicted economic impact $27,000 Farmers Insurance April 6-9 Tremont House Expected to attend 100 Predicted economic impact $40,500 Texas Radiological Society April 6-9 San Luis Expected to attend 300 Predicted economic impact $121,500 Couple Continued from 1-D John Justin downtown Dallas. It should have been the best of times for a bootmaker like Justin, and in a sense, it was. Justin's footwear sales rose 55 percent to $60.6 million and operating profits were $7.6 million. But boots accounted for just 35.5 percent of Justin Industries Inc.

sales for 1980 and 33 percent of its profits. Jus- tin's Acme Brick riding the crest of the boom in the Southwest, provided most of the rest of Justin's sales and earnings. "The trouble with the Urban Cowboy period," Justin says, "Was that it brought a lot of buyers into the market who wanted the exotic, way-out boots, like those made with lizard or ostrich skins. Our market always has been driven by the regular buyers, the people who wear the boots to work." Justin's misgivings were confirmed in 1982 when Urban Cowboy gave way to Preppie and bootmakers were stuck with huge inventories that could be sold only at discounts. The result was an operating loss of $8.9 million for Justin's footwear operations that year.

But boot sales in 1988 surpassed bricks for the second consecutive year, to $123.4 million, more than double that recorded in the Urban Cowboy year and amounting to 50 percent of Justin Industries' total revenues for 1988. Homebuilding in the Southwest market served by Acme brick limped through its fourth consecu- tive down year in 1988. Brick sales that had reached $133,5 million five years earlier 1 were now down to $105 million. Brick profits fell from a record $21 million in 1984 to $1.8 million last year, and that was achieved only by closing several plants and other severe cost-reductions. But boot profits were $7.6 million last year, almost identical to 1980.

While boot profits had been only a third of Justin Industries' earnings eight years earlier, they were almost 70 percent of operating profits in 1988. If such a development surprises followers of trends and fads, it would astound John Sullivan Justin Sr. John Sr. inherited the company founded in 1879 by his father, H.J. Justin, at Spanish Fork near the Oklahoma border.

The H.J. Justin Sons boot company moved soon to nearby Nocona, and then to Fort Worth in 1925. From the beginning, Justin's boots won the West. But by the time John Sr. moved the company to Fort Worth, he was convinced that the future was in shoes, which he began producing at the Fort Worth plant.

make up the Phillips 66 Co. The Sweeny family sold more than 500 acres of land to Phillips for production purposes during the past four decades. But John Bannister, who retired from the Houston oil business in 1981, and his wife prefer to surround themselves with antiques. Their shop and adjacent home are dominated by restored antiques. The couple thrives on buying items from estate sales and by saving furniture that would otherwise be thrown into the fire.

"I like to salvage any old piece of furniture that is on the verge of being destroyed," said John Bannister. "I don't like to see old furniture thrown away." The Bannisters' store and home are filled with thick brown wooden cabinets, once used to cool freshly baked pies. Other furniture includes fireside chairs some constructed from scratch and heavy window shutters saved from ruin when the old Brazos County Courthouse in Bryan was torn down in 1951. "My interest is the eclectic," Nancy Bannister said. "I like a little of everything.

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